


to me, this city's hell (but I know you call it home)

by patchworkgirlofoz



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern with Magic, Established Relationship, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-25
Updated: 2020-04-25
Packaged: 2021-03-02 02:41:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,749
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23837719
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/patchworkgirlofoz/pseuds/patchworkgirlofoz
Summary: Fjord overslept, and Caduceus brought him lunch. There aren’t many moments the two of them get to have between work and it isn’t too long until this one is interrupted as well.
Relationships: Caduceus Clay/Fjord, Minor or Background Relationship(s)
Comments: 2
Kudos: 34





	to me, this city's hell (but I know you call it home)

When Fjord came to, it was to the sound of curtains being gently pulled open and the warmth of sunlight falling on his face. His initial reaction was to groan, shifting his body away from the source of the light and burying his face into the pillows, before his mind began to process through the grogginess of his body. 

It shouldn’t be that bright out yet. Fjord squeezed his eyes open, the room coming into focus around him. He saw Caduceus there, sitting on the edge of their bed.

“What time is it?” Fjord croaked. 

“Past noon,” Caduceus said. “Around one o’clock, give or take.” 

Blearily, Fjord pushed himself up on his elbows. His brain felt like a brick. “Uggh,” he said, intelligibly. “I overslept.”

“You probably didn’t sleep in long enough.” Caduceus said. He glanced over Fjord, not quite directly asking. “You crawled back into bed right when I was waking up this morning. I don’t think you even noticed I was awake, you were so tired.”

“Molly called me in the middle of the night. Or more like early morning. His car broke down again.” Fjord felt an irritation surge in the back of his mind, thinking about being woken up by a string of four or five text messages in a row. He’d told Molly he should just toss that junker already, but did he ever listen to him?

Caduceus smiled, slightly. “I thought it might be something like that,” he said. 

“I couldn’t just let him sleep in his backseat overnight, even if I wanted to.” Fjord grumbled.

“I didn’t say you should’ve.” 

Fjord glanced over at him. Caduceus was wearing a forest green coat over his a white linen shirt. He had braided his long pink hair into a neat plait down his back. The amethyst crystal necklace he usually kept tucked beneath his shirt for safekeeping was out to be displayed. 

“I missed the service this morning, didn’t I,” Fjord said. 

“Melora will forgive you, I think.” Caduceus’ eyes twinkled in the light pouring from their apartment window. He reached out, and laid his hand on Fjord’s. “I think She’s proud you went to rescue a friend last night, even if it’s only from his own foolishness.” 

Fjord understood that to mean that Caduceus was also proud of him, and he flushed a little. 

“Still, it’s kind of part of our time together. One of our things,” he said. He felt guilty.

"There will always be more in the future." Caduceus pulled out a small brown paper bag. “I got you something from that taqueria you like.” He said. “I would have made you lunch, but I’m afraid I have to go right back so I can’t stay long.” 

Fjord caught the bag as it was tossed to him. “Thanks Caduceus,” he said, genuinely. It smelled delicious. He was opening the bag, about to dig in, when his cellphone went off. Caduceus’ eyebrows raised slightly - that was the pop-pop notification noise, which meant it was Beau. Fjord sighed. 

“One moment, that’s all I ask for…” he brought the phone to his mouth. “Hey, Beau. You’re on speaker.”

“Hey, where the fuck are you?”

Fjord exchanged a look with Caduceus. “Uh… temple,” he lied, reflexively more than anything, and then winced. He cleared his throat. “What is it, what do you need.”

“I’m surprised you haven’t heard already,” Beau said. Fjord heard the click of keys in the background, and then a door open and slam shut behind her. “You didn’t get any of that gossip about fairies in town kidnapping children while you were over there?”

Fjord looked at Caduceus, who shrugged one shoulder, looking just as confused.

“...No, I can say for sure I hadn’t heard that. At the temple.” 

“Guess it hasn’t spread out much yet. That’s something.” Fjord heard her exhale, drawn out and tired. “It’s a mess, Fjord. The kid’s dad went straight to the Gentlemen’s people like a moron and of course, they’re not gonna get involved, what with how things are. Threatened the man to keep his mouth shut! Not that I blame him for not wanting to go to the actual police - who trusts the Dwendalian police force nowadays? - but what did he think he was going to get out of that slimy bastard?”

Fjord shook his head. “You know what it’s like,” he said. “No good place to turn.”

“Yeah, well, that’s why we’re here.” Beau said. “Jester’s talking to poor guy now to calm him down - she’s better at that stuff than me - and Veth is on her way. So we just need you and then we can get started.” 

“Right,” Fjord said.

“Hey,” Beau said, “You better not have pulled an all-nighter. I need you sharp here.”

“What? I’m fine. Why would you think that?”

“Fjord,” Beau said, with a sort of exaggerated patience. “Do you know who is roommates with Molly?”

“Jester,” Fjord said.

“Jester,” Beau agreed. “Do you know who is dating Jester?”

“You,” Fjord said.

“Me. So I know all about the dramatic fifteenth hundred time that van of his broke down and your heroic rescue driving two miles there and back again to get him home. If you were actually awake before I called, I'm gonna be honest. I'd be a little disappointed in you.” 

Fjord gave Caduceus an apologetic look, as Caduceus mouthed the words “two hours” at him.

“Technically, my boyfriend woke me up. But, yes, you weren’t far behind.”

“Oh, hey, Caduceus! He still around?”

“Good afternoon Beauregard.” Caduceus said, in his pleasant low voice. “How are you today?”

“I’m great! Besides for the whole ‘this city can’t go one day without a disaster’ thing. Listen, I’m gonna be blunt here. Last time you helped us get through some pretty intense shit. I asked Fjord to offer you a job, and I know he didn’t -” Fjord raised his eyes to the ceiling, fighting down the urge to do something stupid like shut the phone off “- but we could really, really use that spiritual power of yours. Like, really use it.”

Caduceus looked thoughtfully at Fjord. “I don’t need another job,” he said, “but I believe i have some time I could set aside, If you need me.”

“Caduceus -” Fjord said.

“Great, that’s settled,” Beau said. “And you said I wasn’t a people person.” And she hung up.

Caduceus chuckled. “Your partner’s a force of will,” he said, admiringly. 

“Yes, she is. Listen, Caduceus...” 

“You didn’t tell me any of that,” Caduceus said. “That your friends thought I was skilled enough that they wanted me as part of the team.” 

He didn’t seem angry. And Fjord was pretty good at picking up when people were angry with him. But sometimes, Caduceus still was the most mysterious person he’d ever met, so he still felt antsy not being able to place that tone. 

“You’re right. I didn’t,” Fjord said. “Like you said, you have a job. I didn’t think you’d be interested in a repeat of anything like what happened last time. And I’m not sure if I want you involved in it either.”

Caduceus hummed under his breath. He looked thoughtful. 

“I was grateful to have been there, even by accident. Maybe it wasn't an accident. Maybe Melora guided me to your side,” he said. “You did almost die without me.”

“Yes. Yes! And I’m very grateful for everything you did. Really,” Fjord said, feeling a little panicked because if Caduceus convinced himself this was a path he was fated to go on, he'd never be able to convince him otherwise. “But that’s why I didn’t want to tell you, because it is dangerous. You got hurt as well, remember?”

“Nothing that serious,” Caduceus said. 

“Not that time,” Fjord said. “Look, let’s talk about this later? The faerie kidnapping seems pretty time-sensitive and I know you still have a lot to do back at the temple today.” He knew his tone came off pleading, and that the deflection from the topic was kind of weak, but Caduceus seemed to accept it.

“Tonight. We’ll talk about it tonight,” Caduceus said. 

“Promise,” Fjord said. He walked over and leaned up for a kiss, which Caduceus obliged him. This close to him, he smelled like lavender and fresh laundry. 

“Don’t forget your lunch.”

“Right. Thanks,” Fjord said. He tried a smile, a little cautiously, and was relieved he got one in return. He grabbed the brown bag and left, not without giving Caduceus' arm a gentle squeeze as he passed.

Shutting the apartment door behind him, Fjord tried not to think about the upcoming conversation. 

For a lot of reasons, he thought it was a bad and dangerous idea. However, he was historically terrible at saying no to Caduceus ...and Beau was right about one thing. Caduceus’ spiritual powers would be incredibly helpful when dealing with the supernatural threats they faced on a regular basis. With the current leadership in the city being what it was, those threats did seem to be escalating recently in an alarming fashion. 

But there line of work was dangerous, not only because of the situations that they handled but because they were operating independent to and kind of askew of the law, and they had to tiptoe around the Gentleman's organization as well. It might be selfish to want Caduceus to stay out of it more than he had already, accidently, fallen into while Fjord was signing on for it each time, but this was his (and Beau and Jester's) passion project. They'd wanted to offer a community resource to the non-human, supernatural, magical or otherwise that couldn't rely on the system as well. 

He'd been doing this before he'd even met Caduceus and couldn't imagine leaving it now. And Caduceus had understood that, had told him he admired Fjord for it, which had been - incredibly flattering. But now Beau had let the idea that Caduceus could be a part of this as well into their life and Fjord's gut twisted, because how was he supposed to justify that it was okay if _he_ risked his life but he couldn't let Caduceus risk his? Even in his own mind, it sounded bad and kind of controlling. And that was the last thing he ever wanted to be to anyone, after his past. 

It was just... so complicated. He would definitely rather face a couple of fairies then have that conversation.

Also, his tacos had gone cold. It was going to be a long day.

**Author's Note:**

> Full disclosure, this was the prompt I was least sure about. Modern au’s aren’t exactly something I find myself as interested in. But I wound up having fun writing a little scene and I do have ideas so maybe I'll do something more with it later on, not sure. Tagging these is still kind of a guessing game to me, so I apologize if the mention of Beaujes doesn't exactly qualify for the minor relationship tag, I was kinda 50/50 about mentioning it.
> 
> The song I took the lyrics to for my title today is "Follow My Voice" by Julie Byrne, which is just a fantastic Caduceus song imo.


End file.
